SRI LANKA: Five-year-old child kidnapped

On Monday, 28 July 2014, an unidentified group
kidnapped five-year-old Damindu Yasen Kumara. They arrived
on motorcycles, with their faces covered by helmets and
masks. They stabbed his parents, who struggled to protect
their child. The kidnapping occurred in Katugampalagama,
Meegalewa Police Divison.

Several media channels have
broadcasted the heartbreaking voices of his father and
mother. Speaking through the media, Damindu’s father,
Mahinda Kumara, who is a rice miller, has said that he is
willing to give up all his wealth in return for the child.
He told the kidnappers to let him know that the child is
still alive, and asked them to give the child food and
water.

Now, on the third day after the kidnapping, there
has been no news about the whereabouts of the child or about
the identities of the kidnappers. The police claim to have
deployed several teams to search for the child. However,
these police teams have made no progress. There have been
several child abductions in the recent past; on two
occasions, the bodies of the children were found several
days after the incident.

This incident exposes the failure
of the government to carry out its primary duty, which is to
provide protection for its citizens. It is ironic that the
government has itself dissolved the most important
institution supposed to carry out this duty of protecting
citizens, i.e. the Sri Lankan police service.

In a recent
speech, at a conference organised by Transparency
International Sri Lanka (TISL), the President of the Bar
Association of Sri Lanka, Mr. Upul Jayasuriya, explained to
the audience the manner in which the Inspector General of
Police (IGP) has become powerless to lead his own
institution. The IGP has to work under the instructions of
the Secretary to the Ministry of Defence and Urban
Development.

A police force has lost the institutional
capacity to work within a basic organizational structure in
which the principle of command responsibility can be
effectively implemented. This has created a dangerous
environment for all the people of Sri Lanka. Paramilitary
groups, like the STF, or the military cannot replace a
functioning policing system. It is the task of the police
force to provide protection to citizens by maintaining an
environment in which the law is effectively implemented. If
the police are institutionally paralyzed, crime is bound to
increase; ineffective policing is what helps criminals most
to achieve their ends.

The problem of policing in Sri
Lanka arises from a fundamental change in the control of the
institution following the 1978 Constitution. The government
has no plans or intention to change its course and return
the powers that have been taken from the police. This option
of changing course does not exist as the government is
committed to maintaining the power structure created by the
1978 Constitution, which was further strengthened by the
18th Amendment to the Constitution. The basic idea behind
the 1978 Constitution has proven a failure. But, the
government does not want to abandon this failed idea.

That
it is now possible to kidnap children from the hands of
their parents, demonstrates how deep this insecurity has
spread across Sri Lanka. Every man, every woman, and every
child in the country is facing the consequences of the
absence of a protective legal mechanism that can eliminate
the possibility of criminals threatening their way of
life.

President Mahinda Rajapaksha has proven incapable of
understanding that the primary function of a government is
to protect the citizens. He seems to think that development,
without a basic legal framework for the protection of the
people, is the goal. He endlessly talks about development,
knowing well that the structure of policing in the country
has failed. He is least perturbed by this failure. The
building of roads and engagement in similar ventures is
propangandised as an indicator of development. The failure
of the police to protect the people does not, to him,
indicate a failure of development.

The Ministry of Defence
is a major agent in causing the failure of policing and,
therefore, the failure of any real development. The
government’s inability to understand the primary function
of governance is a clear indicator that the government does
not understand the basic arithmetic of development.

The
father of this kidnapped five-year-old child cried out to
the nation, and his cry was carried to all homes through the
media. It is obvious that the sympathy of every parent and
child would be with him and his family. However, the
President of the country and the government are unable to
respond to this cry that has risen from the depth of
suffering of a family that has had their child snatched.
This cry is resounds in every corner of the country.
However, the government ignores it. Making various boasts
about its success, the government has lost the sensitivity
to listen to the cry of its own people.

The tragedy of
this family, which echoes in the cries of many families, is
a stark reminder to the Sri Lankan people: to have a
government that bases its strategies on a failed overall
idea is the gravest danger to
citizens.

Nelson Mandela, then Deputy President of the African National Congress of South Africa, raises his fist in the air while addressing the Special Committee Against Apartheid in the General Assembly Hall. UN Photo/P. Sudhakaran More>>